In ten minutes Major Anderson was on the ground.

"The fellows are taking to mining in earnest," he said; "this is the third
we have discovered to-day, and how many more there may be, goodness only
knows. I think you had better begin here," he said to Mr. Gubbins. "You
have got tools, I think. Say about six feet square, then two men can work
at once. I will be here the first thing in the morning, and then we will
look round and see which is the likeliest spot for the fellows to be
working from. Will you ask your sentries on the roof to listen closely to-
night, in order to detect, if possible, a stir of men coming or going from
any given point."

Picks and shovels were brought out, the garrison told off into working
parties of four each, to relieve each other every hour, and the work
began. Well-sinking is hard work in any climate, but with a thermometer
marking a hundred and five at night, it is terrible; and each set of
workers, as they came up bathed in perspiration, threw themselves on the
ground utterly exhausted. Mr. Hargreaves and a few of the elders of the
garrison were excused this work, and took extra duty on the terrace and
battery.

The next day it was decided that the enemy were probably working from a
ruined house near their former battery, and a gallery was begun from the
bottom of the shaft. This was pushed on night and day for three days, the
workers being now certain, from the rapidly increasing sound of the
workers, that this was the line by which the enemy was approaching. The
gallery was driven nearly twenty yards, and then three barrels of powder
were stored there, and the besieged awaited the approach of the rebels'
gallery.